The best social media post I’ve seen this year…

March 1, 2010

Scary statistics regarding Twitter – it appears the majority of companies utilising the social media platform are not monitoring their ROI effectively and, in some cases, are not even measuring ROI at all. The majority are still measuring effectiveness based solely in terms of direct traffic generated back to a website or corporate blog – the most basic measurement technique.

Undoubtedly, this is a direct way of seeing the ROI of the platform, but there are subtle metrics too, concerned with the impact on Brand values, customer engagement over time, increase in company reputation and the enhancement of trust in assisting sales.

These ‘softer’ ROI indicators – which are notoriously difficult to track to direct sales – nevertheless give value, benefit and cost-effective customer-building techniques week-in, week-out. Just look at the example of Zappos on Twitter for proof.

Now, I am all for demonstrable ROI, and especially if it can be proven in terms of sales, but the blog post from Marketing Pilgrim clearly highlights that marketing directors and businesses in general need to take a wider picture for long-term success on social media platforms – including, in this well-highlighted case, Twitter. It’s a fantastic post on social media.

The best, in fact, I think I’ve seen this year. And it still shows that the sales power lies in the hands of the content creators…

Thanks for your comments – connection is the key, as you so rightly point out.

I think a combination of well-delivered content with informative metrics demonstrating an overall ROI is the best mix for committed social media types, as well as keeping the corporate marketers happy…